Owatonna Girls Hockey Wins Opener with Comeback over Faribault

The Owatonna girls hockey team recovered from a slow start in their season opener and a 3-0 deficit to beat Faribault 4-3 in overtime at Four Seasons Centre in Owatonna.

The Falcons grabbed the 3-0 lead less than three minutes into the game on goals by Alexis Ferris, Haley Lang and Olivia Williamson. Huskies coach Tim Hunst elected to use his timeout then, "You hate to burn a timeout that early but at that point it was, guys we need to relax. We need to just start playing hockey." The Huskies started to skate better and played even with the Falcons the rest of the first period.

Owatonna broke through with a pair of goals in the middle of the second period. Jamie Davison scored at 7:48 on a shot from just inside the blue line. Hunst said, "She kept the shot low. She was moving across, got the goalie moving side-to-side and put it back behind her. It was a nice shot and we needed it big time."

Margo Achterkrich scored less than two minutes later on a great individual effort, slipping the puck into a narrow opening to cut the deficit to 3-2 entering the third period. In the opening minute, Jenna Bogen won a face off back to Achterkirch, who fired it past the Faribault net minder for a 3-3 tie 34 seconds into the third.

In overtime, Bogen scored the game-winner at 3:52 with an assist to Achterkirch and Chloe Schmidt, who did a nice job holding the puck in the zone on the play.

Goalie Laura Ebeling recovered from the rocky start to get the win. "She made a couple of big saves late in the game," said Hunst, adding "big glove save on a point blank chance." Owatonna outshot Faribault 27-22.

No. 14A ranked Owatonna (1-0) hosts No. 15A South St. Paul on Saturday at 7PM at Four Seasons.